~ Looking forward, looking back & enjoying now.

Monthly Archives: January 2016

My head knows that the seasons here in Tasmania are back to front from my UK background. So I’m posting this monthly series to record the changing seasons and to encourage my mind to grasp this southern hemisphere reality.

January is full on summer. Schools on holidays for the whole month. People out on the beach. The month began with New Year fireworks, and is ending with heavy rain, thunder storms, flash floods. The first serious rainfall in months, desperately needed.

Bush fires have been burning for two and a half weeks. Our local “firies” are being assisted by fire crews from interstate and from New Zealand. Recent rain did not help the fire situation, in fact it hindered road access to the remote areas under fire, it grounded aircraft that have been water bombing. Lightening strikes started new fires.

As a contrast to the serious natural incidents this month, January has been full of festivals and festivities. Food and drink at “The Taste of Tasmania”, music and art at “MONA FOMA”, yarn bombing a town for a folk festival and Australia Day celebrations.

January has been walks on the beach, cricket matches, yacht races and regattas.

Roses are having a second show.

Bougainvillea are stunning.

Jasmine are full of scent and flowers of all colours are complimenting the fruit trees.

Apples, plums, lemons, blackberries, olives, fresh herbs in the gardens and still plenty of soft fruit at the markets.

Many of the stalls sell products in vibrant colours, clothes, accessories, gifts, fruit and vegetables. The market highlights Tasmania’s arts, crafts and produce.

Entertainers amuse the crowds with music and fun for the kid’s. There are food and drink stalls with lots of choice for snacks and lunch.

The market is held every Saturday in Salamanca Place where sandstone buildings from the 1830 run parallel with plane trees and grass areas, just a few minutes from Hobart waterfront. The warehouses that once stored grain, wool, whale oil and imported goods are now cafes, galleries, restaurants and shops.

Salamanca is as vibrant area of the city all week, with or without the market.

I want to thank Claudette at to search and to find for bringing me into this challenge. I’ve enjoyed looking back at quotes I have saved in the past, searching new ones, and putting them on photos from my own library.

These are my quotes for Day 1, inspired by Change.

The Rules of the Quote Challenge are:
1-Post on three consecutive days.
2-You can pick one or three quotes per day.
3-Challenge three different bloggers per day

I am asking these 3 bloggers if they wish to participate, and I won’t be offended if they choose not to.

The Sandy Bay Regatta is one of the world’s longest running regattas, now in it’s 168th year. It originated with sea farers testing their skills against work mates. Today, sports on the river are still a main attraction, along with beach and field activities.

Rowing, outboarders, dragon boats, kayaks and wind surfers.

I expected thong throwing competitions. (Thongs / flip flops / jandals / slops.) But here in Tasmania they throw locally made work boots – Blundstones. This was such fun, different ages groups taking part. The adults were more dangerous than the kids, with boots going high in the air and landing in the crowds.

The park behind the beach was full of kids activities, rides, food and drink stalls, live music. There was a kids fashion parade and best dressed Aussie competion.The tug of war was another fun event, several heats with lots of cheating.

Australia Day marks the arrival of the First Fleet of British ships back in 1788 but is now regarded as a day to celebrate what is great about the country and being Australian. Although there is recognition of the indigenous Australians that have inhabited this land for hundreds of years, some still refer to the date as “invasion day” and have protested that this public holiday should be moved to another, less emotive, date.

Welcoming new Australian citizens is also part of the day with Citizenship Ceremonies taking place along side the celebrations. The mayor of Hobart, dressed in gown and chains, presented certificates and a native plant to sixty eight new citizen’s.

The weather was rather overcast but no rain, not too hot and not too windy. Perfect conditions for the water events.

There are days when a “total fire ban” is imposed. This means no campfires, no incinerator fires, no bonfires, no back burning.

“Back burning is a way of reducing the amount of flammable material during a controlled burn or wildfire by starting small fires along a man made or natural firebreak in front of a main fire front.”

It means no wood fire barbeques, no wood fire cooking outdoors. Gas and electric barbeques are allowed providing the surrounding area is cleared for a least one metre.

The ban means no welding, grinding or cutting metal in the open. Any tools that create sparks are prohibited.

It means restrictions on farming equipment such as harvesting machinery.

An unprecedented four day fire ban is now in place across the whole of Tasmania. This will impact a long weekend and Australia Day celebrations.

As 70 bush fires continue to burn across the state, one National Park has been closed, hiking tracks and overnights huts have been closed in other parks, restricting access to the island’s lakes, mountains and wilderness.

We’ve had smoke haze on and off since Sunday due to more than 75 bush fires burning across Tasmania right now.

Almost fifty fires were sparked a week ago by lightening strikes. The Tasmania Fire Service have been stretched to the limit since then and requested assistance from Fire Services on the mainland.

Fortunately, so far, there has been no loss of life and limited impact to properties. Thousands of hectares of bush land and forest in remote areas of the north of the island have been burnt. Bush walkers, fisherman and two fire crews were evacuated by air rescue due to the difficult terrain and restricted road access. But several communities remain on high alert.

This hot and dry summer is proving to be a tough fire season across Australia. Severe fires in Victoria destroyed over a hundred homes along the Great Ocean Road on Christmas Day and the town of Yarloop was destroyed in Western Australia earlier this month.

Living in the UK I was aware of the tragedy of significant bush fires, reported world wide. But now I am experiencing the reality of living in this environment. Even with the fires a hundred miles away, the smoke here is real, air quality is poor and visibility is limited.

A couple of hours before sun set, the sun was blood red in colour and now the moon has an eerie orange glow.